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Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Fewer Thrills Than Expected: A Review of Pandora's Succession

My Book Review of Pandora’s Succession by Russell Brooks:

Pandora’s Succession by Russell Brooks reads like a 1960’s Bond thriller in a modern-day setting. The book plays out as a standard action story complete with flash and gadgets and the requisite evil villains, but is light on suspense.

The novel is a spy thriller, and tells the story of Ridley Fox, a CIA agent, on the hunt for a deadly viral weapon named Pandora. Along the way he finds old enemies, friends and new threats.

The plotline showed promise with an intriguing and entertaining premise bursting with a lethal virus, cults and spies galore, but I found the author’s style derailed any appeal for me. The prose leaned too heavily on passive voice and adverbs for my taste and this -unfortunately- diluted much of the book’s tension. I also found that many scenes relied on explanation instead of straight action, slowing the flow of the novel. I wanted the exploits to simply happen and evolve naturally instead of relying on elaborate setup and extraneous detail.

As well, the characters, while reasonably well-written, failed to connect with me and I found them lacking in emotional depth. The dialogue often felt atypical and oddly out of place.

I liked the idea of Pandora’s Succession, but I cannot say the book thrilled me.

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About Me

I was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, and I still call it home. I've been writing speculative fiction (horror, fantasy, sci-fi) for several years, and have several published books. I also have a great interest in history and mythology, often working those themes into my stories.

I'm an indie author, and my books are available through several online retailers such as Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble. Some of my more well known published works are the Killers and Demons series, Fairy Tale Fusion, Chronicles of the Undead, Ruined City, and Colours of Poetry.

I am not here for dating or romantic relationships, so don't even bother. If you are not interested in me as a writer, keep moving.